How To: Improve Your Public Speaking

Master Public Speaking

Combining contrasts with lists

Three-part lists and contrasts can be combined to great effect. In this technique, we use the third element of the list to contrast with the first two. JFK, once again, made effective use of this device, four minutes and 40 seconds into his inauguration, stating, “Not because the communists are doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.” This takes the benefits of both of those techniques and makes great use of them. It doesn’t simply emphasize one point, nor does it merely create a contrast; it does both, thereby reinforcing both techniques.

Sonic rhetorical devices

This is an umbrella term for a range of rhetorical techniques that are also frequently used in poetry. Perhaps the best known of these is alliteration.

Using alliteration helps to emphasize something in a simple way, using repeated similar sounds to attract the ears of an audience. Examples are common in tongue twisters like, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Linked to alliteration are assonance and consonance. While alliteration focuses on sounds at the beginning of each word, assonance focuses on internal vowels and consonance on internal consonants. These are slightly harder to spot, but nevertheless can be effective in conveying a message. A simple example is, “I baked a cake beside a lake,” where the strong sounds of the “a” and the “k” draw the attention of the listener.

Imagery and metaphor

Cultivating memorable images in the minds of your audience can be an extremely potent weapon in the rhetorical armory. JFK spoke of “casting off the chains of poverty.” This works by creating associations, and its primary mechanism is by directly stating that something is something else. Metaphor has been found in the oldest surviving language in the world, Sumerian. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, metaphor is used to compare a person to an animal: “My friend, swift stallion, wild deer, leopard ranging in the wilderness.” Martin Luther King Jr., in one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century, talked of those who were “battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” For many people, images are far more memorable than words alone, so this technique can help you reach audiences who might otherwise become bored by presenting with a much more visceral turn of phrase.

Speak with a silver tongue

So there you have it. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the rhetorical devices you could use, but it does represent a number of the most prevalent and effective. So the next time you are thinking of how to convey a message, be it a Best Man’s speech, a lecture or a business presentation, consider how some of these techniques might help you reach your audience more effectively. Try and incorporate them into passages that you feel might be a bit dull, and see where it takes you.